“My my, Evelyn, there is no need to stand here. Were you that worried?”

As he got off the carriage, Arthur saw his maid standing next to the manor's entrance gates, motionless like a statue. Once she saw him, she performed the bow she really liked to repeat and maintained her silence, refusing to respond to his remark.

“It’s evening but the sun is still out. I really don’t know how you can stand for so long in this blazing weather. Your concern almost seems genuine.”

He chuckled and made his way to the estate with Evelyn right behind him. Of course, Arthur knew she didn’t wait for him out of concern or worry, but out of curiosity, as is her wont.

It was the first time he refused to let her tag along, which mayhap slightly annoyed her. Moreover, as his personal maid and, as she would often say, ‘protector’, it’s only expected for her to follow him everywhere… not this time, though.

Hungry, Arthur headed directly to the Dining Room. The servants were preparing the dishes and organizing the massive table. He sat down at the main seat and looked at the covered plate, a bit eager.

Before he began to eat, he momentarily turned around and looked at Evelyn. Unlike last time, she was standing a couple of paces away and adamant on keeping her silence.

“My god!”

Expecting to see a fancy seafood dish, Arthur was startled and almost fell off his chair when he removed the cloche. What laid before his eyes was, in fact, a chubby white rabbit. The animal leapt into Arthur’s lap then on the ground.

Arthur held his hand close to his rapidly-beating heart and dazedly stared at the empty plate before shifting his attention to Evelyn.

“Very funny, Evelyn.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Master. It was never my intention to prank you. Maybe it was put there by mistake.”

“You have some humor, I admit.”

Arthur did not expect such a petty trick to happen, which was why he was startled. His reaction was a bit comical, but his maid, who he was sure was the perpetrator, didn’t even flinch, much less laugh.

Not everyday you would see a maid pranking her master, nevertheless, Arthur did not dwell on the matter for longer than necessary. He glanced at the hopping rabbit and asked,

“Considering that I only instructed you this morning to bring me live rabbits, you reacted pretty fast. How many did you manage to procure?”

“It wasn’t a difficult feat, master.”

“Hmm, I see. Did you catch them by yourself?”

Evelyn raised her eyebrow and answered, “There is a store that sells live animals that could be domesticated, master.”

“So they cost money? What a waste.”

“It’s only 10 silver per rabbit, master.”

“It’s still a lot. You are a very capable maid, you should have gone to the forest and caught them by yourself. A way to hone your not-so-hidden combat skills…” He winked at her then chuckled, oblivious to the annoyed expression plastered on her face.

“...”-Evelyn

*****

“It’s four minutes on average.”

Leonis’ manor had an abundance of guest rooms, so he picked the one closest to his office and made it into his new ‘experimental room’. With the exception of a medium-sized wooden table and a couple of chairs, the room was empty.

After enjoying the dinner, Arthur retired to his room for an hour then came here to begin the experiments. Everything proceeded well but, ironically, the stench of blood was nauseating for him.

The purpose behind the recently-procured living rabbits was to test the effects of his ‘Vampiric’ blood. Vampirism varied from one subject to the other, and it turned out to be an average of four minutes for rabbits.

Once his blood was injected into the cute and furry little animals, they squirmed for thirty seconds then their eyes turned blood-red. They would start acting violently and thrashing around.

“So they get consumed by hunger for half a minute then calm down? The process seems to be slightly different for humans, though. Well, it matters not…”

Arthur then tried giving his blood a second time to a rabbit already inflicted with Vampirism. Alas, the results were different from his expectations, and a little disappointing, to say the least.

He had thought they would fully turn into some sort of Vampiric Rabbits, but it wasn’t the case. The rabbits actually died on the spot while bleeding from their orifices. Suffice to say, it was a disgusting but necessary procedure which helped affirm prior speculations and theories.

Of course, for humans, there could be minor or major differences, but it should not be too detrimental to his plan.

“Hm?”

Arthur was pacing around, deep in thought, only to be interrupted by a chilling and low screech. As he turned around, he saw one of the supposedly dead rabbits back on its feet, its white fur erect and its eyes gleaming with a crimson glow.

Upon making eye contact with the enraged beast, the latter lunged at him only to crash into a semi-translucent yellow-ish barrier.

Though startled to see one of the rabbits come back to life, Arthur reacted relatively fast and fended off the beast. In fact, he only sustained the barrier for one minute before removing it.

The rabbit wasn’t smart enough to attack from the sides or change its tactic. It kept unceasingly lunging at him from the front and crashing into the barrier. Eventually, it fell unconscious, its body squirming for a couple more seconds before becoming lifeless.

“A curious thing…”

Just when he thought he was done, Arthur came upon a rather interesting discovery. To confirm his suspicions, he sacrificed the last five rabbits by feeding them his blood again, but, with each case, the dose of the blood varied.

Twenty minutes later, only one of the five rabbits remained alive. It behaved erratically but at least it did not attack the parasite. It wriggled in his hands for several minutes then died like all the rest.

“It depends on the dosage… but why does it eventually die? I’m sure there is a way…”

Arthur’s research into Vampirism was interrupted by a knock on the door. Once he responded, Evelyn entered the dim room and said,

“Master, you have a guest.”

“A guest? Who?”

“It’s Miss Julie, daughter of Baron Lernon.”

“Oh… I’ll go meet her.”

Arthur nodded his head, removed the bloodied gloves and quickly left the room. His maid, however, was frowning as she looked at the dead rabbits and the nauseating amount of blood splattered on either the table or the ground.

Soon, after changing some of his dirtied clothes, Arthur was at the entrance hall of the estate, welcoming young Julie with a smile.

“Your visit is a welcome surprise, Julie. Come in.”

The girl meekly nodded her head and followed him, though she kept pulling her hood up and acting a bit suspicious. Nevertheless, Arthur did not question her and, instead, talked about more light-hearted topics.

“Since my new friend graced me with her visit, I shall entertain you the best I could. We will go to the veranda, is that okay with you?”

“Yes…”

Julie was hugging two books and closely walking behind Arthur. Her tension slowly vanished after exchanging a few words with Arthur.

In a matter of minutes, the two of them sat across from each other in the peaceful backyard veranda, which was equipped with a beautiful view of the garden as well as a clear night sky.

Evelny dutifully performed her job by serving her master and the guest cups of Black Tea and some sweet snacks.

Strangely enough, Julie kept smelling a strong scent of blood on Arthur, and despite not commenting about it, it still made her a bit fidgety.

“Let’s see… ‘Dating a Thief’ and ‘Marrying My Enemy’, romance stories, right?”

Fortunately, Julie managed to purge any dark thoughts haunting her mind and soon engaged in an entertaining conversation with Arthur.

Ever since spending that night talking with Leonis Sanguis about her hobbies and the stories she had read, Julie wanted to talk to him again, thus she came here. Her own home and family scared her, and with no one to talk to, her day would be insufferably dull.

“I will read these two tonight. Now, how about I tell you a story of my own? I’m sure you’ve never heard of it.”

“Really?”

The girl clenched her petite hands and eagerly looked at the red-haired noble, barely able to contain her emotions.

“Yes! It’s called ‘Cinderella’ and it’s about a girl who…”

For thirty minutes straight, Arthur tried his best to recount everything he knew about the famous Cinderella story. As expected, it captivated Julie’s heart and stole her whole attention.

Meanwhile, Evelyn was standing a distance away, gazing at the two of them in silence. As someone not particularly interested in romance stories, the maid was, likewise, fascinated by what she heard and could not help perk her ears and listen.